by Zoey Marcel
“I’m not gay. I’m b–” Ben stopped himself short, seeming embarrassed.
“What were you going to say?” Judah’s head jerked. “Oh my god, you’re bi, aren’t you? You don’t just keep Neil around for Jill. You fuck him, too, don’t you?”
“Get out,” Ben growled.
Judah shook his head and headed for the door on wobbly legs. “No problem. I need a shower and a stiff drink.” He paused with his hand on the doorknob. “It’s not like I’d be rotten to her or anything. I’d be good to Jill and give her everything she deserves. I have the money to do that. Hell, I could buy her a ring from Tiffany’s. You can’t. I have more experience in the sack, too. Just think it over, sheriff.”
“Get the fuck out of here!” Ben threw something at him, but it sailed through the air far too quickly to identify it.
Judah hurried out the door, muttering under his breath. “I can see biting you really backfired on me.”
* * * *
Ben couldn’t think straight the entire rest of the day. He stood on guard during a trial for a murderer’s case, but he was only there in flesh. Raw shock assailed him from every side. He’d fucked Judah Shaughnessy—dry-humped the audacious bastard all over his desk.
Ben shook his head, knowing he must confess this to Jill after he’d been on her case about Judah. Then he’d gone and rubbed groins with him? Yeah, this was going to be a real picnic. She’d probably cuss him out for hypocrisy and she’d have every right to. He felt ashamed of his out-of-control conduct with a man he hated, and he was confused and stunned beyond reason.
Judah had mentioned something about mating heat. Ben had heard of it in relation to weres. Was that what this was all about? Was Judah some kind of shape-changer? And that bite he gave him? Had the perverted son of a bitch claimed him deliberately so Ben would share his wife with him? Pure, evil genius.
When Ben got home he sat Jill down once they were alone. “I don’t know how to say this. You remember when I told you how Judah bit me out of the blue?”
She nodded, seeming oddly guarded.
“Something happened earlier that…” Ben looked down into his hands, worrying he would lose her. He must be honest. He required it of her and he could give her no less. “Something came over me and Judah. He said it was mating heat. I think he’s some kind of shape-shifter. When he bit me…I think he claimed me.”
Jill didn’t cry or gasp in shock. She appeared surprised, but not disgusted. Her eyes sparkled with calculating mischief and her lips twitched slightly as if amused. “Did you fuck him?”
Ben squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. “Yeah, but not up the ass or anything. We kept our clothes on.”
“Did you guys rub against each other or something?”
He made a face. “Yeah.”
Her smile was subtle, but it was there in plain view for him before she quickly concealed it. “Were you guys standing or lying down?”
“Lying down.” Why the fuck did she want details? Wouldn’t that be more painful for her?
“Did you come?” she asked in a sultry purr.
He blushed and jumped to his feet. “Christ, woman, what are you trying to do?”
“I think I have a right to know.”
He heaved a troubled sigh. “Yes, we both came. I have no desires for him. It was that fucking mating heat. I swear to you it won’t happen again. I’m so sorry, love.”
A cold rush of realization came over him when he realized that he was on his knees, grappling for her hand and she had a sly, calculating expression on her face. She wasn’t mad at all or even hurt. She was…scheming.
“I’m not mad, Ben, but I’m really hurt that Neil and I aren’t enough for you,” she said with faux sweetness. “Gosh, Ben, is there a man in town you don’t want to fuck?”
He was torn between spanking her for using his own words against him and swallowing down his pride to accept her derision. “I’m truly sorry. If it hadn’t been for the mating heat I never would have done that. I called Logan earlier and he told me that my mating bond with Judah can be broken if my true mate claims me. That’s you, babe. Just bite me and it will erase the hold he has over me. I’ll be completely yours and this will never happen again.”
She had a smug, wicked gleam in her fetching gray eyes. “It must really be eating you up inside, knowing that you fucked a man you hate.”
“It does. I feel awful.” He kissed her hand, hoping she’d find a way to forgive him.
“I’ll claim you, Ben, but only under one condition.”
“Name it.”
Her eyes grew cold and wicked. “An eye for an eye.”
He drew back slightly, utterly astonished and praying she wasn’t asking what he feared she was. “What?”
“You fucked Judah. It’s only fair that I get to fuck him once, too. Then we’ll be even.”
Ben flew to his feet in jealous rage. “You bitch! You already fucked him years ago!”
“And you fucked Neil while we were apart once you’d learned that I’d slept with somebody else. The score won’t be even until I get another round with Judah, too, and if you throw Logan into the mix, too, then I’ll keep submitting to you,” she bargained shamelessly.
“What?” Ben growled, wanting desperately to beat her ass. “Are you giving your husband and Dominant an ultimatum?”
She rose swiftly to her feet, glowering at him ruthlessly. “That’s exactly what I’m doing. Who has the power now, hubby dearest?”
“I swear to God I’m going to strip you naked and flog your ass.”
She flinched briefly before erecting a defensive shield between them. “Go ahead. It won’t change anything. At the end of the day you’ll still be horny for Judah, and in this small town you’ll run into him again and fuck him whenever you see him.”
“You’ve got some nerve.”
“Just one night, Ben, that’s all I’m asking. You fucked a man you hate. Why can’t I have one night with two men I…like?”
He glared at her. “I’m not lending you out to other men like a fucking prostitute.”
“Well, I assumed you’d have the good taste not to charge them for a night with me,” Jill boldly sassed him, patting his arm in that condescending way of hers that always pissed him off immensely. She hadn’t dared do it since he’d started training her, but right now she was behaving very rebelliously.
He crossed his arms together, glaring at her furiously. “The answer is no.”
“Then so is mine. Give my regards to Judah while you’re fucking him.” She strutted down the hall haughtily.
Ben’s hands shook by his sides and he was sorely tempted to beat her ass as he watched it sway seductively out of the room. He opted instead to call his mentor. Logan would know what to do with this whole mating business. Maybe he didn’t need Jill’s cooperation after all. Hopefully there was another way out of this, but he had a pretty bad feeling there wasn’t.
* * * *
“So you and Judah are leopard shifters?” Ben asked as he sat up at the bar with Logan Weston.
Logan nodded and took a swig of his whiskey. “It isn’t common knowledge, but yeah, that’s what we are. I take it Jill didn’t agree to claim you.”
Ben scowled, his fingers tightening around his shot glass as he recalled her haughty belligerence as she taunted him with her upper hand. “No. She gave me an ultimatum, but her terms were barbaric.”
“What were they?” Logan asked.
Ben’s eyes closed, and he felt humiliated and depressed. “She wanted me to let her sleep with Judah…and you.”
Logan froze, though he didn’t seem as shocked as Ben would have expected. “I see.”
“How long have you two been in love?”
“A long time, but we never acted on it. I would never dishonor her marriage or yours like that.”
“I know,” Ben said quietly. “If it hadn’t been for your honor she probably would have fucked you the same as she did Judah.”
“She felt terr
ible for betraying you.”
He exhaled loudly once he’d taken a gulp of his liquor and set the glass down. “Yeah, well, apparently she’s over it.”
“Ben, there’s something you should know. When Allan Sloane beat the shit out of your wife a while back…I bit Jill to save her life,” Logan confessed.
Ben’s head jerked suddenly. “You what?”
“I claimed her so she wouldn’t die.”
He sighed. “She didn’t tell me that.”
“I thought not.”
Ben shook his head and dragged his hand down his face. “Shit. She’s mated to you and I’m mated to him. What the fuck is this? What am I going to do with her? I don’t want to be mated to that vile son of a bitch who seduced my wife, but I sure as hell can’t give in to her or she’ll assume she’s in control.”
“If you give into her, she will be.” Logan polished off his whiskey.
“I guess I could just avoid the bastard.” Ben stiffened, feeling his dick tighten in his jeans when Judah’s alluring scent wafted up his nose as the cowboy walked into the bar. “Fuck.”
Logan must have smelled him, too, apparently. He grabbed Ben’s wrist when he got up. “If you follow him into the bathroom you’ll end up fucking him again. The mating heat is strong enough that it can make you do crazy things, even fuck someone or take it up the ass without lubricant.”
Ben felt his body shaking and tingling. “I’m just going to kick his ass for doing this to me.”
Logan eyed him skeptically. “Sure you are, Ben.”
Anger swarmed through Ben’s body, hot and determined as he made his way to the bathroom. Despite his uncontrollable rage, he felt relieved and excited when he realized they were alone. There he was—Judah fucking Shaughnessy. The promiscuous asshole needed to die.
Ben went at him and rammed him up against the wall. “What the fuck did you do to me, you sick pervert?”
“Oh Christ, I thought I smelled you in here,” Judah grumbled, rolling his beautiful silver-blue eyes. “Just get out of here before the fucking mating heat kicks in again.”
“I don’t think so, motherfucker. We’re taking this somewhere private, and I swear to God I’m going to pulverize you for trying to come between me and Jill. She’s mine, you son of a bitch, not yours!” Ben felt his wrath slowly subsiding as another emotion replaced it. Raw, unadulterated lust consumed him when he saw Judah’s eyes changing color and becoming wild with passion.
“Ah, crap,” the cowboy complained. “You should have gotten out when you had the chance.”
Ben felt energetic sparks of delight zing through him when the other man grabbed him by the back of the neck and yanked him into a demanding kiss. Ben shoved him away and then herded him into a stall. Once the door was closed and the lock secured they were at each other like fighting dogs. They mauled the other man’s mouth and clawed at the other person’s jeans to get them open.
“This is all your fault, you womanizing bastard.” Ben slammed him up against the wall, yanking his jeans down enough to pull out the other man’s swelling cock. “If you had half a brain in that head of yours instead of a skull full of hyperactive dick, you’d realize Jill’s off limits.”
Judah smirked and pulled Ben’s intrigued prick out. “You want to posture, prairie chicken? Let’s do this.” He cringed. “I mean let’s fight, not fuck.”
Ben snorted, growing disgusted and aroused as he watched the pulsing cock in his hand fill out. “Sure you did, punk, that’s why you’re moaning and getting hard. You’re really pathetic, you know that, pretending to be bi so you can have a shot at my wife.”
A fiery spark of exhilaration shot through Ben’s testicles at the look on Judah’s face when Ben groped his balls. Damn, that was sexy as hell.
“Well, I’ve got news for you, Judah fucking—Shit!” Ben lost his breath when the presumptuous cowboy parasite matched their dicks against one another—Ben’s was bigger, he noted with smug satisfaction—and made the pulsating flesh hump each other in an X-rated massage. “You think I want to feel your puny dick against mine? Jesus!”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Judah quipped, moaning and jerking their erections faster. “Is this what you want, sheriff—to know what your wife felt when I slept with her? Or did you want me to show you how it’s done so she doesn’t leave you again?”
“Shut up, you son of a bitch!” Ben rammed him against the door with such force that the lock gave way and they toppled onto the floor together outside the stall.
“Oh, that’s real good, fucker, let’s just get it on out here so anyone can walk in and see us,” Judah sassed. “You’re a real pain in the ass, you know that?”
Ben flipped him over and ground his bulging cock against the man’s pert ass. It was tight, slightly hairy, and fucking incredible. “I’m about to be. Hold your tiny ass cheeks open for me.”
Judah sounded irritated, but he made no effort to escape. “Kiss my ass.”
Ben growled, feeling another thread of control and possibly sanity snap as he went down on Judah’s firm rump and kissed each loaf.
A wild gasp tore from Judah’s throat. His face went to the floor and he groaned when Ben’s tongue wiggled in his crack. “Shit! You’re really good at that. You see, sheriff? You can run off and be gay with Neil and leave Jill to the real men. Logan and I’ll take good care of her.”
“You keep talking and I’ll shove my dick up your ass so hard—”
Judah moaned and moved Ben’s hand under him so the sheriff held his balls.
“Don’t do that. Keep your nasty noises to yourself.”
They drove Ben crazy. He felt more animal than human as he licked and chomped at Judah’s neck and shoulder while positioning his traitorous cock against the cowboy’s anus.
“I’m gonna be the one in your ass.” Judah didn’t move except to hump Ben’s hand massaging his testes. “I’m going to fuck your ugly ass until you cry like a little—Argh! Damn it!”
“Your cock would have to be bigger for me to feel anything,” Ben taunted, thrilling at the reluctant hole taunting him with forbidden access. Oh, he would find a way in. There was heat and darkness beyond the raisin-like surface of his anus. Tightness and spasms that would massage his achy dick until ejaculation became inevitable. He jabbed again, this time making headway.
Judah’s wimpy sound of pain and horny approval spurred him on. The little bitch loved this.
“Is that all you got, motherfucker?” Judah taunted.
“No. There’s a good three feet left to go.”
He laughed. “You wish. God, don’t you know about lubricant, you animal?”
“I thought you were a man. Are you telling me you’re not, little girl?” Ben shoved forward, feeling tight muscle grip his cockhead. The soft flesh felt somewhat harsh going in dry like this, but he didn’t care. There was an instinctual drive in him that had but one thought, must fuck.
Judah grunted and squirmed in pain, humping Ben’s hand with an eager moan. “Keep going, douche bag. I can handle your itty bitty dick. Ow! Son of the gods!”
“I think you’re bleeding.” Ben’s fangs dropped and something took over as he bit Judah hard on the shoulder.
“Nice going. Aaaahhhh!” Judah’s outcry was masculine, but the duration suggested he hadn’t seen this sadistic bite coming.
Ben hadn’t either, but Judah’s blood called to him. He nipped all along his broken flesh, toying with the wound just to be a bastard. His erection drove forward, but the snug sphincter wouldn’t let him in very far. The narrow channel of fire gripping him sent thrilling sensations up and down his cock.
He glanced over when he smelled and sensed someone. Constantine Wrenwar, one of the preachers in town, stood there with his mouth open.
“Why’d you stop?” Judah glanced over to where Ben stared and grimaced. “Ah, hell. This isn’t what it looks like, I swear.”
“I never judge,” Constantine said awkwardly before clearing his throat and leaving.
&
nbsp; Ben felt the mating heat subside and sensed Judah was coming down, too. Balls, he was embarrassed. Speaking of balls…he removed his hand from Judah’s goods in repugnance and pulled out of him.
Constantine was considered one of the more tolerant preachers in town, so it was all good…except for the part where Ben had just fucked the man he hated most. He noticed some blood on Judah’s asshole. He hadn’t meant to make the poor bastard bleed. Hell, he hadn’t meant to fuck him in the first place.
Ben pulled his underwear and jeans back up in haste, feeling humiliated and ultimately emasculated when he realized what he had to do in order to fix this.
Judah closed his pants and dusted himself off. “Well, that was awkward and disgusting.”
Ben headed for the door in shock. “Are you hurt?”
Judah snorted. “Don’t flatter yourself. Your cock’s not that big.”
“I didn’t mean to make you bleed,” Ben muttered with his hand on the door. He couldn’t look at the other man or apologize, but the words were the closest thing to “I’m sorry” as pride would allow.
“I’ll live.”
Ben didn’t say anything as he left the restroom. He passed by Logan on his way out of the bar. “Wait in one of the private rooms tonight at the club. I’ll send Jill over, and you and Judah can do whatever you want with her. Just make sure she gets home safely.”
Ben’s vision turned to blurry liquid as he turned and hurried out of the bar. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad lending her out to them. She’d get them out of her system and come back to him. She had to. He couldn’t lose her again.
Chapter Sixteen:
Changes
Logan waited in a private room at The Gothic Angel alone. Jill would be here soon. He’d seen the tortured look in Ben’s eyes when he’d agreed to let Logan and Judah have a night with her. It was a greatly appreciated offer, but one Logan couldn’t accept. Permission wasn’t enough when acceptance was absent. Ben’s mouth may have said “yes,” but his eyes had clearly said “no.”
